frostiron: Blame it On the Boy
by MissSherlockHieiHolmes
Summary: So last night while I was replying to my Loki roleplay blog on tumblr, the site went down for maintenance. So, I started writing a bit of a drabble and it turned into a 3,000 word story that has the potential to be continued. I also saw a post on tumblr before the site went down challenging people to be productive, so I tried.


As if Midgard was trying to prove to the god that things could get worse, the lights in the bathroom flickered on and off a few times before fading out completely. The blackness didn't last very long, for his eyes soon adjusted to the difference in light, but he still could not see the results of what he had excused himself for to begin with.

A glance out the window showed him that New York City was completely dark. The city that never slept did not have one single light ablaze and for a time, Loki didn't understand what was happening. His time on Midgard had not prepared him for something like this but he had heard of certain scenarios. The Avengers often talked about famous "blackouts" as they called them. From what he understood, the power throughout the city had gone down.

Somehow Tony Stark was probably to blame.

"Damn," Loki growled softly, squinting at the item in his hand. He couldn't make out what he needed to with no light and he was silently cursing Tony and every other god forsaken mortal that put him in such a predicament.

Deep down, he knew he had no one to blame but himself. His punishment for his crimes against Midgard was something similar to what Thor had gone through during his banishment to the planet. He, however, was not stripped of his god-status. Instead, the Allfather, Odin, had his magical energy sealed within his blood. This was a rather painful process that generally left Loki in an uncomfortable state. He wasn't cut off from using his power, but he had to willing open a sizable gash upon himself. His magic only worked if he was able to bleed enough of the energy.

Needless to say, this was a last resort. He would need to nearly drain himself to preform anything even halfway useful and it simply wasn't worth it. Loki did, however, find some amount of relief in cutting himself. Many Midgardians used this process but Loki used it for a different reason. Allowing just a small fraction of blood-and therefore magic-to trickle from an open wound sent a rush of relief through his being.

In addition to his magic being blood-bound, the Allfather decided that it would be best for Loki to return to Midgard. He was meant to help repair the damage he had caused to the realm while also working to redeem himself. Unfortunately this meant that he was under constant observation. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kept a watch on him at all hours, mostly the Avengers. The rest were not considered well enough to deal with Loki incase the fallen god actually did become a problem.

Loki stayed in Stark Tower with Tony Stark and his brother, Thor. Thor insisted that he join Loki on Earth to keep an eye on him. Truly, he just didn't like the idea of being away from Loki again. After watching the younger god fall into a black hole, after believing that he lost his brother forever, he couldn't imagine being without him again. Their relationship was tense and certainly not as loving as it had once been, but Thor did everything he could to help his brother. In his own way, Loki did appreciate everything that Thor did for him but it was difficult to express such feelings.

He felt more alone on Midgard than ever before.

"Loki? Hey, you in there? The power's down so JARVIS can't open the door," Tony called from the other side of the washroom with a light knock. "I'm sorry, but it looks like you're stuck in there until the power comes back on. I'm working on getting my backup generator started. Hopefully you won't be in there long… Loki?"

Oddly enough, Loki had grown rather close to Tony. The rest of the Avengers grinded on his very last nerve and, while Tony was certainly no walk in the park to deal with, he could relate to the genius well enough. The man was sarcastic and demeaning on the outside but underneath that, there was a misunderstood and lonely man who didn't know how to deal with he true feelings. He covered this up with his attitude and his money while subconsciously pushing those closest to him away.

Tony and Pepper's breakup was proof enough of that.

When Loki first returned to Midgard to serve out his banishment and "find redemption", he couldn't see past Tony's mask. He found the man rather obnoxious and quite the drama queen but after a few weeks, Loki found that he and Thor were the only Avengers that he could actually talk to. In that time, Loki realized just how much he actually shared with Tony. They were two sides of the same coin, so to speak, the same persona on different sides. While Loki had been the monster to terrorize the Earth, Tony was fighting against him but all the while, they were both suffering.

Around six weeks, Loki found himself not only freely discussing his life and his reasons for doing the things he did, but actually sharing the genius' bed. Being in Tony's arms was excessively bittersweet but somehow he felt at home with the billionaire. How their relationship had taken such a one-eighty was beyond him.

"Hey? Loki…? You in there? Are you okay?" Tony called again, knocking.

"Yes…" Loki finally said, tearing his eyes away from what currently rested in his hands. "Yes, I am quite all right, Tony, no need to worry. Just get the generator running please." He wasn't worried about being stuck in the bathroom because that he could deal with, but the worry gnawing at his stomach was just too much to take.

Loki and Tony had been carrying on a secret relationship for almost a month now. Sneaking around with so many eyes watching him was definitely a challenge, especially since one set of those eyes belonged to his loving, overprotective and overbearing older brother. How Thor would react to know he was sleeping with the man of iron was a mystery, but the mischievous god knew it wouldn't be pleasant. Thor was always unfriendly to his brother's love interests. If he knew that the darker god was sleeping with a man who truly didn't seem to care about anyone but himself? Well, Loki could only picture Tony being crushed under the weight of his hammer. How he would ever break the news to his brother, he still hadn't decided.

"Okay, it shouldn't be too long," Tony said and with that, Loki could hear the echo of footsteps retreating down the hall.

Sighing, the god put one hand on his stomach. The past week or so he had felt rather nauseous at random times throughout the day. Not only did he feel sick when he shouldn't have, but he was suddenly rejecting some of his favorite foods. Shellfish had been the first thing to make him retch and from there the list only grew. He couldn't stomach anything that came out of the ocean; nothing fried or overly sweet and he definitely couldn't handle anything sour, like lemons and pickles.

When he first started to feel sick, he assumed that it had something to do with the fact that his magic had been so pent up inside of his body. He took an opportunity to excuse himself and open a few small gashes across his forearm. The relief was almost instant and the small amount of magic that trickled out was enough to allow him to heal the cuts without too much of an issue.

For a day or so after that, he had been fine, felt fine and his concerns eased. Then the nausea returned two fold. He would have assumed that he was simply coming down with some sort of foreign Midgardian illness if he hadn't experienced such an uneven and inconstant wave of repeated sickness before. Only once in his life had he ever experienced such discomfort and that was what terrified him most.

Thankfully he was able to keep his recent discomforts a secret for the most part. He simply avoided the foods that he knew would make him retch and blamed the episodes of nausea and lightheadedness on the fact that his magic was locked inside of his body and was becoming uncomfortable. This wasn't a total lie, but Loki knew there was so much more to his current condition.

Several long moments of silence passed by with one hand resting on his upset stomach and the other resting in his lap, clenching what he had come into the bathroom for to begin with. His emerald eyes never left the small window above the jetted tub, watching the black city as well as he could with minimal lights. The only illumination came from the fool moon shining over the city. The exhaust and pollution from the city concealed most of the stars, sadly. Loki had never really gotten a close look at the Midgardian night sky and that rather depressed him. Watching the stars from the palace garden was one of his favorite things to do as a child in Asgard. He wanted to know how Midgard compared.

Moments ticked by into some close to fifteen minutes before the lights finally came back on. JARVIS rebooted and the bathroom door unlocked so Loki could leave if he desired such. Judging by the still-black city, Loki had to assume that Tony had gotten the back up power generator going. Stark Tower was now one of the only buildings in the city that possessed power and the generator wasn't even enough to power the entirety of the massive skyscraper. Only the main living spaces and the lab actually came back online.

With a deep breath, Loki finally lifted the object he was clutching at. His heart was slamming into his ribcage and his eyes were closed as the object came to eye level. Part of him wanted to look, to know if his fears were actual reality and the other part was convinced that he was just being ridiculous, that his current physical state was due to the constant exposure to Midgard without his power. Deep down inside of his gut, he knew that his illness was more than just that.

Slowly, the God of Mischief opened his eyes, deciding it was better to dive right in instead of taking it slow. In a sense, it was the same logic as removing a bandage. If it was removed quickly, the pain was slim and next to none. If it was taken slow, the agony lingered much longer than necessary. Perhaps the logic didn't quite make sense in this situation, but he stuck with it.

In his hand sat a pregnancy test and the moment he opened his eyes (he had already studied the instructions before he had even taken the test so he could be sure that he knew what his results meant), he was greeted with two lines stretched across the tiny screen. For a moment, he simply stared at it, as if he were expecting to see double and waiting for his sight to return to normal. The lines were the only things that he saw in a pair, however, and after several minutes of allowing such information to sink in, he lowered his hand, covering the results of the test with his thumb.

"Shit…"

He didn't have long to dwell on the news of his confirmed pregnancy, how his suspicions of his current state had been right. When he was carrying Sleipnir, he had the exact same symptoms. Now he was carrying Tony Stark's child and he didn't even have five minutes to digest the information.

Soon there was another knock on the door. "Loki, hey? Um, Clint said that he really needs to use the bathroom and you haven't come out yet. Are you sure you're all right?" Tony called. Perhaps he had picked up on Loki's recent illnesses more than the god had realized. The man certainly did sound concerned.

Loki didn't reply. Stark Tower had many bathrooms and Clint could use a different one. Loki was unwilling to face Tony because he was anxious of how the man would react. Tony Stark was hardly a responsible adult and he certainly was not fatherly material. "Loki? Come on, what's the matter?!" Tony finally raised his voice, becoming relatively annoying to the god. This was not uncommon; Tony was a very infuriating individual. "If you don't come out, then I'm coming in, so I hope you're decent!"

"No, leave me be!" Loki replied instantly, jumping up from his seat on the edge of the tub surround. JARVIS would let Tony in if the man requested it and the only way Loki could keep his lover out was to physically keep the door from opening.

"Stop being ridiculous, Loki! Open the door or I'm opening it for you!" Tony exclaimed.

"Stark, I'm serious—" Loki replied, reaching for the handle. Physically he was stronger than Tony so long as the man wasn't wearing his Iron Man suit, but the knob had turned and the door had swung in before he could even reach it.

"What the Hell is going on, Loki? You've been in here for almost forty minutes!" Tony questioned, completely overlooking the pregnancy test in Loki's grasp. "Are you sick again? I've noticed that you've been growing paler than usual, you're avoiding meals and, no offense or anything, but you've really been off your game in the bedroom lately." Leave it to Tony to bring sex into his rant about being worried for his lover. That was just how Tony was, the sex drive and mindset of a teenager with the intellect of Steven Hawking.

"Well thank you for that, Stark. I can already feel myself getting healthier…" Loki grumbled, reverting to his sarcastic cover immediately.

With a sarcastic comment hanging on the tip of his tongue, Tony stopped himself, realizing that there was something seriously wrong. He could see it in Loki's emerald eyes, the fear and the anxiety. "Hey… What's up?" he asked softly, shutting the door behind him so they were cut off from the rest of Stark tower. "JARVIS, make sure no one enters this bathroom."

"Very good, Sir," JARVIS replied immediately.

Satisfied, Tony turned back to his secret lover and he reached out to him, carefully caressing Loki's smooth, cool cheek with his fingertips. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me. I know whatever is going on in the bedroom is due to whatever is going on that you don't want me to know about. If you're sick, you can just tell me. You don't have to be embarrassed, everyone gets sick once in a while, including the God of Mischief. Is that what this is about? Because if you are sick, I want to help you get better, not ignore it and possibly let it get worse." With that, he brought his other hand up to sandwich Loki's cheeks between his hands, forcing the raven-haired god to look at him. "Come on, babe…"

"I did not know what was wrong at first. I attributed my condition to having my magic build up in my system with no form of release," Loki admitted and although Tony's hands kept him from moving his head, he did keep his eyes down, so he did not need to look the other man in the eye.

"I'm judging from how you're acting now that that isn't the case?" Tony questioned, dropping his hands to reach for Loki's. What he found were two fists clenched tight at the god's side and the right hand happened to be holding something. For a moment Tony tried to pry the stick out of Loki's hand but the taller man refused to give it up. "Loki… What is this?" Tony asked. Loki's hands were long enough to cover most of the test but after a few moments of forcing his fingers between the god's clenched fist, he managed to pry the test out of Loki's hand.

Silence fell between them as Tony examined what he now held. Loki looked down at his feet as realization dawned on the genius, although he seemed to be having a hard time coming to terms with it. He attempted to speak several times but words, for once, failed him. Whether it was the fact that he was going to be a father or the fact that humans believed that only females could become pregnant, he wasn't sure. In fact, it was probably some odd mixture of both

"You… You're pregnant," Tony finally said, looking up from the test to meet Loki's eyes, but the god was looking anywhere else. Tony knew that Loki had four children. He did not, however, know that he was a mother to one of them. "Loki?"

The god only nodded, but he didn't look up at Tony. "I never thought… I did not believe this would be an issue for us. It should not have been a problem and I am not certain on how this happened. All I can say is that I never meant for something like this to happen and I apologize…" Loki, however, would not even consider killing the child. He cared for too much for all children, especially his own.

"All right, this is not what I planned on dealing with… Well ever, but it took both of us to get you into this position and… We'll figure out how to deal with it, all right? Please don't be upset, I hate to see you upset," Tony said, setting the test down on the sink counter before pulling the taller man into his arms. "You don't have to be so upset and scared, at least not alone. I'm here." Loki nodded a bit, although he couldn't truly bring himself to speak. "You were afraid I wouldn't want anything to do with you after this, weren't you?" Tony pressed a hand to Loki's still-flat stomach, knowing that soon it would swell with his child soon enough.

The reality of the situation had yet to set in.

"I admit, I was rather fearful," Loki admitted, shame amongst several other emotions filling his emerald eyes. After a moment, his hand fell to cover Tony's. "However I am pleased that you are not running…" he added, pressing a soft, almost not-there kiss to his lover's lips.


End file.
